The bloke from Momo:tempo swaps musical duties for an on-screen role in a new art-house short.
As Timo Peach will tell you, sometimes it’s a lot easier to not have to turn up to somewhere with a lot of equipment. And sharing a couple of Momo pieces as spoken word performances at popular Bournemouth poetry night, Freeway Poets, lead to him landing another creative gig that would turn out to be a lot lighter on the gear luggage.
“I pop along to poetry nights from time to time,” says Mr Peach, “there’s a strong scene here in Bomo, and Freeway is like a pocket festival down at The Winchester every first Wednesday. You’ll always find creative surprises there. And I might have been one of those!” he laughs.
Performing Mighty Anonymity and Al Hamdu Li Lah as spoken pieces, Momo later found an email from an audience member, inviting him to audition for a role in her graduation short – written entirely in a freeform poetry.
“As busy as the Momo schedule often is, it’s also definitively ecclectic, so I figured this project sounded too interesting to ignore” says Momo. “And I could oddly picture myself in the role. Meeting Rebecca convinced me this might be a nice shoot to be on.”
Writer/director Rebecca Joy Howe and co-writer Lucy Cousins conceived the film as an experiment in using poetry in film for Becky’s final show piece at Bournemouth University’s BA Television Production course.
“Calm Waters is a 10 minute drama all performed in spoken word poetry. It follows 18 year old Joe, fresh from leaving college, pondering his next steps into adulthood” Becky explains. “His mundane life working at a local supermarket takes an unfortunate and distressing turn when his Dad, Gary, is diagnosed with cancer. Through poetry, we watch their relationship become closer than ever as Gary decides now is the perfect time to pass on his passion for sailing to his son.”
For Timo Peach, it was the first screen acting work in years.
“There are various shorts from the college years, and videos of plays and skits in those youthful days” he nods, “but I guess Momo has taken me away from this kind of creative performance work. So I had to muster a little inquisitive fortitude to take the role and go help the team make Calm Waters. A team of young pros and a delightful fellow cast – I had a wonderful two days in a sublimely sunny Gosport. I was mainly just worried about wrecking Becky’s degree!” he says sheepishly.
“But their casting of Archie as Gary’s son was inspired” he adds. “Not only did he and I hit it off splendidly, trying not to wreck the set’s calmly professional tone by mucking about, he also had hair as bonkers as mine.”
Simply put – “Thank you”.
I thoroughly enjoyed that small trip into poetry and arty film type thing – something that I would not normally have ventured to go and find by myself – primarily as I did not realise that I might enjoy it.
I did.
You’re welcome, Simon. But funny thing, but I suddenly knew what other actors have said about not always having a strong idea of how the work they’ve done on screen will really work, or what the tone of the end production will really be – was a bit of a revelation to me when I first saw the final cut. And a nice one, because I like the idea that the team didn’t try to make a more typical bit of film making – Calm Waters is its own thing. And I really enjoyed my part in its interesting creation.